


The Genius

by aadk



Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Comics), Guardians of the Galaxy - All Media Types, Legendary Star-Lord, Marvel, Marvel (Comics), Marvel 616, X-Men (Comicverse), X-Men - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Dark Past, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Science
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-31
Updated: 2015-07-31
Packaged: 2018-04-12 04:52:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,344
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4466111
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aadk/pseuds/aadk
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kitty is a genius who is having problems with a project. Is there something Peter can do to help her?</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Genius

The sun (or whatever star that illuminated Spartax) was setting, darkness would follow soon. Most of the royal employees on the Royal Spartax palace were done with their duties and retired to their respective rooms, others went out for the night, and some decided to do extra hours. But on the royal laboratory; the owners of the place, the king and her soon-to-be queen, were not resting or enjoying the peace that soothed the halls and rooms of their home. They were busy; or at least, the queen, Katherine "Kitty" Pryde, was busy; solving equations and problems.

She wanted to build something. Something big. A machine that, in turn, would allow her to create something else. Something small. This was a project she had given to herself and one that had had her busy the past few days. The king, Peter Quill, was aware of this; but decided not to pay much attention to it, preferring to go outside and battle gigantic creatures and weird monsters with his friends while his fiancée was busy working. That day however, Peter noticed Kitty was very crabby. She didn't spend hours cuddling with him on bed, instead, she gave him a peck and stormed out of their room, directly to the royal lab. Not even a shower. She seemed upset at lunch as well, and there she told Peter why. Her little project was paralyzed because she got stuck. Peter told her to take it easy but those words fell on deaf ears, for she went back to the lab as soon as she finished her food. Peter wanted to go see her but his obligations as king prevented him from doing that, and didn't even let him finish his lunch.

The afternoon was an endless torture filled with deliberations, debates and papers to sign. He tried to focus on his tasks, but his mind would every time go back to his fiancée and how stressed she was at lunch. group after group, paper after paper, the afternoon passed. Finally, after the last session of the day was closed, Peter ran from the conference hall and went straight to the lab to see if Kitty was still there. He was not disappointed, she was there: angry and messy. Peter tried to talk to her and convince her it was enough for the day, but his efforts turned out to be fruitless for Kitty didn't want to talk about anything. Peter knew how stubborn she could get when she set her mind on doing something, but this was ridiculous. She didn't even have the obligation to finish this, it was a personal project. 'No, nothing my girl does is ridiculous. It's the times when she hates my guts when I have to support her the most.' Peter told himself. Then he remembered he was thinking about her fiancée, the genius who learned to hack Shi'ar computers at fourteen. If she was having problems, this was something big. Peter examined the three boards where tons of equations and formulas were written. Kitty surely had worked a lot these days. One little thing on the middle board caught his attention though. He started getting very focused on it. He stood there looking at those numbers and drawings for a few minutes while Kitty tried to organize some papers, ignoring him. Suddenly Peter took an eraser and a marker, Kitty noticed and almost fell trying to reach for his arm to stop him. She screamed at him to not touch his board. Peter didn't listen and started erasing some stuff. Kitty couldn't believe what he was doing, she got more angry and started screaming him to leave but Peter just kept erasing stuff. Kitty was ready to force him out until she noticed that Peter started writing.

And he wrote a lot.

At first Kitty looked at the board with angry eyes, offended by how calm and fine Peter was with ruining her job, however her expression changed after she started analyzing what Peter was writing. She kept making connection after connection. She was shocked. Peter was actually fixing her stuff. She stood there quiet and amazed at what Peter was doing until he stopped writing and meet her surprised gaze. Kitty finally spoke. 

"Wow"

"Yeah..."

A silence very uncomfortable followed.

"I guess I'll 'get the fuck out' now," Peter said turning his back and heading to the exit.

"Peter wait," Kitty said now following him.

"It's okay honey. I know you got this," Peter said not turning or slowing down.

"Peter. I'm sorry, please come back," Kitty said after reaching his arm, trying to pull him back. Peter finally turned around and met her gaze.

"Are you angry at me?" Peter whispered.

"No," Kitty whispered back, "It's just --You really knew what you were doing," Kitty said a little bit more louder but breaking the eye contact. A big grin appeared on Peter's face. 

"Of course darling. Why wouldn't I?" Peter said with a cocky tone.

Kitty was trying to choose her words better this time, "I --I just --You usually --don't --give a..."

"Intelligent guy vibe?" Peter said before she finished. Kitty looked him in the eyes again and tried to rectify immediately any misinterpretations he might get, "No, you're smart honey. It's just, you're not..."

"A genius," Peter went ahead again before she finished talking.

Kitty gave up and nodded very shyly. Looking his eyes with puppy dog eyes hoping he wasn't offended. Peter just laughed softly and with a hand on his chest replied.

"I suppose it's my fault dear. Never cared for the whole super genius image. I prefer the lovable rogue one," Peter said now walking around the room.

"Yes, I can tell," Kitty said after turning her attention to her board once more. After doing another mental analysis for a minute; she, once again, was left speechless.

"Wow. I mean...Wow."

"Cat got your tongue," Peter said grinning. 

"No, it's just..."

"Of course not. You're the cat. You can't get your own tongue can you?" Peter was enjoying himself.

Kitty looked at him, "You are ruining my moment space boy."

"Okay, kitty got your tongue then," Peter responded and Kitty gave up rolling her eyes.

"So anyways, I say you have to reconfigure the machine to 6.43 Megahyuts to even start thinking about breaking the light speed on this planet babe." Peter started talking while pointing some equations on the board.

"What about the effects of H-forces? Or gravity? We need to create a differential equation that allows us to surpass those effects," Kitty responded while writing a new equation on the already full board.

"Don't forget to avoid the use of other dimensions. We don't wanna rip a portal in the middle of the city to who knows where," Peter said while pointing an equation on another board across the one Kitty was writing on.

"We might need to reconfigure the machine and alter its angle in 56.3 degrees." Kitty stopped writing and brought her hand to her chin.

"Not enough. It might spontaneously combust. I think we have to complete your equation using these variables, adding this differential and then we use Khth's law to solve this...and then we will have the variable we need to solve these other equations to finally obtain the exact angle we will need." Peter went to complete the equation Kitty started.

"You're making me fall more and more in love with you with every equation you solve space boy. Here I thought I couldn't fall more," Kitty said with a really big grin on her face and her gaze devouring Peter while he solved that last equation.

"I'm that charming babe," Peter said with a smug face after he finished.

"But seriously. When did you learn this stuff?" Kitty asked.

"At NASA of course. They don't select people for space missions just because they are impossibly handsome," Peter answered with both hands on his waist.

"Oh NASA, right...How come you never talk about those days Peter?" Kitty asked with a face that showed sincere curiosity. But something she wasn't expecting happened, Peter's smile fade away and he started looking to the ground.

"...It's a past better left locked," He whispered. Kitty felt like she ruined the moment with the question but, she would be lying if she said she wasn't interested on knowing more about her fiancée.

"No past is better left locked space boy," Kitty said putting one hand on his shoulder.

"Mine is." Peter now closed his eyes, frowning.

"Please, tell me." Kitty insisted trying to make him turn around.

"No," Peter whispered.

"Peter..." Kitty said but Peter, sharply, turned around and said loudly.

"No Kitty. Leave it please!!!"

Kitty flinched a little, at the unexpected reaction. Peter immediately realized what he did and offered an apology.

"I'm sorry darling. Don't know what overcame me," Peter said with a soft voice, closing his eyes again.

"Did something happened?" Kitty moved closer to him again and embraced him from behind this time.

"Yes. Everything," Peter responded with a sour tone.

"I wanna know. I'm a good listener. You will feel better afterwards," Kitty whispered, with her head pressed against his back. Peter refused to speak but kept caressing her hands linked on his stomach. half a minute passed before he finally said something.

"Maybe some other time."

Nobody moved. Peter felt uncomfortable with the silence and decided to kill it. He forced Kitty to release him and turned to face her at a small distance.

"Come on Kitty, we were having so much fun. Let's keep resolving these stuff and soon your little project will be finished."

Kitty was not okay, she hated when people kept secrets from her, and if that 'people' was her future husband, she was double upset. Nevertheless, she realized this really wasn't the time so she surrendered saying, "Okay." and went back to the boards.

\---

Kitty and Peter kept solving equation after equation. Erasing boards and filling them full of numbers again. Kitty not only kept being amazed by Peter's intellect but her curiosity grew more and more. After an hour, they were very close to finishing. Kitty was in a great mood again and Peter felt like celebrating. It was dinner time already, so Peter decided to take her to a restaurant in Spartax. No elite, no high class, a plain restaurant that made good food (according to Peter). Of course they had to disguise themselves to not be recognized. Glasses, mundane clothes, some hats and they were done. The restaurant was on a suburb. The place was certainly not for kings or people with lots of money, but Peter liked it, and he liked the food. They had a good meal laughing and eating. The complete opposite to what their cold lunch was, Peter stole some kisses and Kitty stole some as well. They were having fun and for a moment Kitty almost forgot about what she wanted to talk about with Peter. But when silence finally settled among them, Kitty remembered and was ready to fight to the end.

"Peter."

"Yes, babe?"

"You are extremely intelligent. Your knowledge about Terran and Spartax astrophysics is incredible," Kitty said very casually before sipping her juice.

"Pretty sure it's no better than yours dear. You had more than half the job done before I came in. I thought you were only good with computers but your knowledge of physics is amazing," Peter said very excited. Kitty smiled to herself, blushed a little, and drank more of her juice before continuing.

"I studied this stuff for two years in college, worked at NASA, read many books after I dropped out. I love physics; I love building things; and, before my little bullet experience, I loved space. I always wanted to be an Aerospace Engineer." Kitty was quite proud of her dreams but a little embarrassed because her lifestyle meant she always had to set them aside to deal with whatever crisis her fellow mutant teammates dragged her into.

"I was an Astrophysicist with a minor in Aerospace engineering myself babe," Peter said smiling.

"Really?" Kitty was surprised and maybe even jealous, quite jealous.

"Yeah. Don't spread it around though, it would ruin my image," Peter whispered with one hand next to his mouth.

"Screw that, it would do wonders for your image. Peter Quill, genius," Kitty said with a tone soft high enough for Peter's ears but soft enough so the rest of the people there (not many) couldn't listen.

"I rather be Peter Quill, space cowboy," Peter responded with the same tone and a smug, teasing smile.

"Doesn't work," Kitty smiled herself arching an eyebrow. Challenging him to refute her claims.

"Worked with you," Peter said sure of himself.

"Barely," Kitty answered. 

"You're the only one I need it to work with," Peter said drinking his soda faster.

"Still, homeless thief was the wrong move to begin with Space boy," Kitty reassured with confident eyes.

"Hey, Astrophysicist doesn't work either. On earth people always would..." Peter was trying to reply but realized what he was about to say mid sentence and stopped. Silence followed.

"Honey?" Kitty said trying to figure what was wrong. Peter was looking through the window and then the waiter appeared to save him.

"Here's the check." A waiter approached and delivered a little device with tiny numbers being projected from it in the form of a hologram.

Peter took the opportunity to drop the conversation completely and left the table to pay the check. Kitty felt defeated but swore to herself she wouldn't give up.

\---

Soon they left the restaurant and went back to the palace. They were walking, holding hands, through the big hall that leaded to their room. Suddenly, Kitty phased her hand out and stopped walking. Peter noticed and instantly turned around to face her.

"Forgot something dear?"

"Peter. I wanna know. I need to know." Kitty said with a firm voice and a confident look.

Peter stood there looking down. Kitty leaned towards him, soon she was in front of him and her hand reached for his cheek. Forcing his face to meet hers.

"Peter..."

"Kitty...please..."

"You are smart. A genius. What's wrong with that?"

Peter was closing his eyes now. Not wanting to meet hers. Then he felt some arms around his body. It was Kitty. She was hugging him.

"Let me in honey. Let me share your pain."

Peter felt paralyzed. His body couldn't react to the conflict inside his head. "It's not easy," he whispered.

"It never is," Kitty answered still hugging him.

A heavy sigh of resignation left Peter's mouth, "Okay," he said before forcing himself out of Kitty's embrace, "Let's get to our room first. I'll tell you everything there," Peter said and then followed the big hall that leaded to their room. Kitty went behind him, trying to give him some space. She knew how hard it was to deal with past ghosts, Kitty knew it very well. She also knew that if you tried to just hide from them, they will eat you alive, little by little, no stop, until you're left as a shell of a human being; and Peter had plenty of those ghosts haunting him.

After they reached their room and entered inside, Peter went directly to sit on one of the soft chairs next to the little table they had in one corner. Kitty sat on another one next to him, waiting for him to start, letting him take the time he needed. The silence was exasperating but necessary she thought, for it wasn't easy to deal with nasty memories.

"Okay...number one thing I wanna clarify: I don't think being a genius is a bad thing. I love geniuses. I love you baby. Your brain is the best thi..."

Kitty reached Peter's mouth with one finger and shut it, "Peter, stop. This isn't about me and you know it. I love you too, I know you love my brain and all that gross stuff inside me but, this isn't about me. This is about you." She removed her finger and went back to her silence.

"Okay, pretty impatient huh." Peter said with a faint smile, very nervous. "Okay. The big deal here is..." Peter stopped for a while. Kitty just waited listening. 

"You see...I was the best at NASA. I was also the worst."

"People don't care about smarts when you are the most unpleasant person in the planet."

"In a sense, it was my fault. I pushed everyone away. Behaved like a total nutcase. Maybe I wasn't right in the head at the time," Peter said. A very sad looking face took over.

"I didn't care about what anybody thought about me. But at the same time, I cared. Does that sound crazy?" Peter asked turning his head a little to find Kitty's gaze. Kitty meet his eyes moving her head closer to reassure her next statement, "No. It doesn't." 

"I hated how, no matter how much I kept trying, nothing went right. No matter how much of a genius I was, no one cared enough to save me from my pain. My days as a genius were filled with disappointment, rage, tears and a sense of entitlement. I felt people needed to save me, and if they didn't they weren't worthy; but I also refused any kind of help, because I felt that was a weakness."

Kitty was silently listening, not parting her gaze from Peter's face at any moment. Peter looked very distressed. His hair was more messy after he fiddled with it a lot while talking. His face was filled with sadness but also, regret. His gaze lost in the endless nothingness, his elbows now resting on the table trying to hide his head, his mind hoping that will make him disappear.

"I didn't have the noblest of intentions Kitty. I didn't deserve to be saved." Kitty frowned a little bit at that statement but tried to keep a normal tone (with a little touch of indignation) while responding.

"Don't be stupid. Everyone deserves to be saved; and you, Peter Jason Quill, deserve to be saved as many times as necessary."

"Yeah well, what if I tell you I wanted to become a murderer." Peter responded very harshly.

Kitty flinched at that statement. She tried to hide it but Peter noticed and that little sign of doubt coming from Kitty was all he needed to crumble down, again.

"Yeah. Me. A murderer. My genius, that thing you're so obsessed with now, it grew along with a heavy desire for murder." Peter answered, the words coming out of his mouth very bitter and hurt. He drowned his head again between his arms, preparing for the worst. However, he couldn't stop now. Kitty opened this Pandora box, she would listen to the whole story now, whether she wanted it or not.

"People liked to talk behind my back. They thought I was a nutcase. They filled me with the hate I needed to keep learning. To keep living." Peter felt awful after saying that but he knew that was the truth.

"The worst part is that I..." Peter was now sniffing and tears started forming on his eyes. Kitty noticed and as soon as he tried to wipe the tears before they could come out. Kitty leaned closer to hold his hand.

"I killed them Kitty. I killed the aliens I wanted to kill." Peter said loudly, not being able to hold his tears anymore. He watched Kitty's eyes with a gaze that screamed pain. Kitty was surprised but still silent. Her eyes not losing his for even a second.

"They killed my mother and I killed them." Peter hissed with so much anger in his voice. before falling into silence again. After some more painful seconds, he continued with a more normal voice, "I felt so empty afterwards. For so long I searched for redemption. But it was hopeless. I felt like..."

"...like there was no end to my war."

At the sound of those words Kitty gasped, one hand covering her mouth. Peter noticed and feared the worst. "Kitty please..."

"Peter..." Kitty began speaking but Peter cut her and started pleading.

"Kitty, please, don't go."

"What?" Kitty said surprised.

"I'm no longer that man Kitty, I swear I've changed. You ended my war. Please don't throw me back." Peter begged, tears on his eyes, his voice completely broken. Kitty got a little scared for she never saw her fiancée this vulnerable and destroyed before.

"No. Peter --I'm not going anywhere." Peter's eyes opened wide in surprise.

"How could I? You are there, in the same place I found myself a few years ago. Afraid, confused."

"Oh Peter, I'm not going anywhere." She said at the same time she got up and went to hug Peter's head who was still sniffing with tears on his eyes.

"Don't go Kitty." His broken voice whispered.

"I'm here. It's okay." Kitty consoled him kissing his head softly every few seconds.

They stayed like that for some minutes until Peter calmed down. Peter softly pushed Kitty to break the hug and meet her gaze. "Now you see why I killed the genius?"

Kitty waited a few seconds before moving her head in denial. "You shouldn't have killed the genius just because the genius is human Peter."

"We all have that dark part trying to come out. Sometimes fear, makes it so easy."

"Remember Star-Wars. Fear leads to anger, anger to hate, hate to suffering." Peter smiled at the reference and Kitty smiled back. She leaned closer to touch his cheek with her hand.

"Don't be as weak as you were back then honey. Forget the killer but not the genius. Create new memories for the genius."

Peter maintained his eyes on hers for a moment until he couldn't contain himself any longer and threw himself at Kitty catching her lips with his. She was surprised but responded quickly to the kiss closing her eyes.

"What did I ever do to deserve you?" Peter said after breaking the kiss.

"Question I make myself everyday about you Space boy," Kitty said smiling softly.

They kissed again this time more passionately and for a longer time. They stood there for a moment after the kiss ended until Peter asked. "So, you really wanna go to bed this early?"

"What you mean?" Asked Kitty arching one eyebrow.

"I think we should go to the hangar and start building the machine." Peter said smiling.

"Really?" Kitty asked, her smile getting wider.

"I know how much you like building things darling. I'll unleash the genius Peter just for you tonight."

Kitty almost jumped in excitement, she leaned closer and gave him a peck kiss before sprinting out of their room while saying, "last one there does all the heavy lifting."

Peter started running after many seconds. Of course he was doing the heavy lifting.

\---

And the hours passed as the night went by. The Spartax population slept, some didn't, and the king with his queen were two of them. Even when Peter lost the race and reassured himself he was going to do the heavy lifting, he knew Kitty would do part of the heavy stuff anyways. He was fine with that, she liked doing the heavy stuff, she was happy, that was enough to make him happy, besides where was the fun on him working alone right? So both him and Kitty lifted things, carried stuff, pulled things together, got some injuries, nursed each other, and worked all night. There was also a lot of work left on the theoretical side, so both Kitty and Peter joined their minds on this endeavor. Working as one, their minds didn't have a limit. The job was done before dawn. They had a kiss to celebrate.

"We didn't sleep at all dumbass." Kitty said smiling after the kiss.

"Hey, I'm pretty sure you don't need sleep anymore, and I'm more than used to never sleeping than you think." Peter responded meeting her gaze.

"I don't care. I like to be with you in bed." Kitty locked her arms behind his neck.

"Is that supposed to mean something else Miss Quill." Peter whispered in a seductive tone.

"Of course." Kitty responded with eyes half closed, with a seductive tone herself.

"Let's go test our work and then we can focus on that." Peter said with a louder tone now.

"Deal." Kitty agreed and then both released each other to turn the machine they just built together on.

\---

After something more than half an hour and some explanations given to the worried workers in the palace (and some people from outside) about the incredibly loud noise, the blinding light and the little tremor the machine caused, Kitty and Peter finally faced the reward for their hard work. It was what Kitty had been trying to understand for a long time now. How Peter's Star-Lord mask worked. She thought the only way she could understand it was by trying to reverse engineering it. She was now looking at the copy she and her fiancée had made. Peter offered himself to test it. It worked perfectly. Peter made a fool of himself by dancing and making weird noises with the mask on. Kitty laughed a lot, and occasionally told him how dumb he was of course. After some minutes fooling around, Peter took it out of his head and delivered it on her hands.

"Congratulations Ms. Pryde-soon-to-be-Quill, you just replicated the Star-Lord's mask"

Kitty smiled and Peter kept talking, "I just wonder, why didn't you ask me to give you my mask if you want it that much?"

"Hey, you never know when you're gonna need an extra mask space boy." Kitty said taking the mask and putting it on to test it herself.

"Fair enough. Lady of Stars."

Kitty giggled and joined her lips with his on a kiss before releasing the safelock and letting the mask cover her full head.

It was a perfect fit.

**Author's Note:**

> Genius Peter and his NASA background were shown on his very first appearance on Marvel Previews #4. The "scientific talk" on the middle has no canon explanation. I just tried to make them sound as intelligent as possible there.


End file.
